Legal disputes in the federal courts often unfold in a familiar pattern, going from the lowest-ranking court and then, step by step up the ladder, finally reaching the Supreme Court.   It is usually quite orderly, even when an urgent situation is developing. The usual pattern, though, has not been followed lately in the constitutional controversy… Read More

(UPDATED Saturday 3:21 p.m.  Supreme Court asks for reply to government plea by noon Tuesday.  Maybe no action until after that. Taking the constitutional controversy over immigration restrictions back to the Supreme Court , the Trump Administration on Friday night asked the Justices’ permission to keep intact its current policy on foreign nationals and refugees… Read More

The Trump Administration will return to the Supreme Court in an attempt to get free of a federal judge’s new order expanding entry to the U.S. of foreign nationals and refugees, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Friday afternoon. “The Supreme Court has had to correct this lower court once, and we will now reluctantly return… Read More

A federal judge in Hawaii late Thursday afternoon ordered the Trump Administration to relax its new controls on immigrants, to allow the entry of more foreign relatives of U.S. residents and more refugees from around the world.  The judge refused to put his new ruling on hold, even if the Administration now moved to appeal… Read More

Lawyers for the state of Hawaii and other challengers to the way the Trump Administration is limiting immigration of foreign nationals and refugees leveled new charges of illegal government action in a filing with a federal judge Wednesday night. After Wednesday, the document said, the Administration will stop allowing entry even of refugees who already have… Read More

Disagreeing with a federal appeals court, Trump Administration lawyers argued on Tuesday night that a federal judge had no authority to expand the categories of foreign nationals and refugees who may enter the U.S. under a presidential executive order. In a new filing in a federal trial court in Honolulu, the Trump team argued that… Read More

One of the most significant civil rights questions developing over more than a quarter-century –how far did Congress intend to go to outlaw sex discrimination – is headed to the Supreme Court for a likely showdown.  That issue is at the intersection of three phases in the modern civil rights revolution: on women’s rights, gay… Read More

UPDATED: Saturday 7:14 a.m.  Acting promptly on the Ninth Circuit Court’s implied suggestion for the next move, Hawaii’s lawyers early Saturday asked the judge in Honolulu to issue a new order narrowing what the Trump Administration may do to exclude foreign nationals and refugees from the U.S.  They asked the judge to rule swiftly, without… Read More

Lawyers for the state of Hawaii, arguing that the Trump Administration is “imposing a new Muslim ban wholly divorced from any national security rationale,” urged a federal appeals court on Friday to take steps to ensure that more foreign nationals and refugees get to enter the United States in coming weeks and months. In a… Read More

UPDATED Friday 6:38 a.m.  Lawyers for Hawaii opted to take their plea next to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, following the regular route of appeal from a district court ruling rather than attempting to go directly to the Supreme Court.  It will now be up to the appeals court to decide… Read More